Category: travel

I have been a major blog slacker. Mostly because my writing itch is getting scratched every day by journaling—- believe it or not, I actually DO have SOME private thoughts 😉 I think I am also feeling embarrassed because at the end of June I joined a weight loss group called “Phit n’ Phat” and I feel like every time I start something, everyone collectively groans, “Oh boy….. here we go again!” And I defend myself with… “NO GUYS!! It’s different this time! It really is!!” And guess what. It really is. I knew it was different when I went away with the kids and Lonnie to Boston for the weekend and had no trouble sticking to the plan I made because it included everything I wanted!

My FAVORITE seafood mac n’ cheese from MMMacncheese in Quincy Market

But enough about that!

I wanna talk about my GO-WITH-THE-FLOW-AMAZING-FAMILY!!

We are not rich or well-off by any stretch of the imagination. And right before this Boston trip, we got wiped out by unexpected car repairs. I talked to the kids about the trip being all about fun and togetherness

Soju! A popular Korean alcoholic beverage we have been dying to try. Spoiler alert– yikers are we sure it’s not actually battery acid?

and not shopping an eating out, and rather than groaning, I got, “Oooh! Can we just go to Trader Joes and stock up and hang out in the room and by the pool and stuff!?” Hell yeah we can!!

So we get to Boston. (Well… we stay in Burlington– HOT TIP: Burlington hotels are MUCH, MUCH cheaper and it’s only a 15 minute drive to the Alewife T station and $7 to park for the whole day!) Karen at the front desk of the Hilton Garden Inn says, “I’m sorry. Priceline sent the reservation through for one king bed and the hotel is completely sold out (thanks a lot Taylor Swift), so I can’t even make a switch.” Great. So we go to the lobby to figure it out. Lonnie and I talk about seeing if we can get a room (that we can NOT afford) for the kid in a nearby hotel, as I overhear the kids talking and Sean is saying he could sleep in a chair or on the floor and Jessi could sleep across the bottom of the bed. Suddenly, Karen (aka my Hilton Hero) came over and pulls me aside to whisper that she made have found a solution, someone had checked out early and they had a 2 Queen room– but it wasn’t a done deal because she didn’t know if housekeeping would be able to turn over the room because it was so late, but she would do whatever she could to make it happen. And as the kids say… “Yo Yo Yo….Karen CAME THRUUUUUUUUUUUU” The only hitch was that we needed to disappear for a few hours to give everyone time to clean the room and make the changes…NO PROBLEM! I took this pic as we headed back to the car to kill time feeling all mushy and completely in love with my awesome bunch of drama-free travelers.

We had an AWESOME, CHEAP(ish– let’s be real) weekend! We even indulged Sean in his “dream” to go to a Tesla showroom and into all the fancy stores like Gucci and Louis Vuitton (He listens to waaaayyy too much rap music). The Tesla showroom in Boston actually turned out to be a fun highlight of the weekend. While Boston trips can EASILY break the bank, because of all the tourist attractions, cheap eats, people watching, and shops to browse, it can actually be a bargain!

As I do not have a selfie of “44 years old.” please instead enjoy this snap Sean sent me while I was away LOL

EMBRACING 44 –Let’s start with the fact that today is my birthday. I woke up feeling like 44 feels much different than 43. It’s so much closer to 45, which seems like basically 50. But as with most things, I am (mostly) blessed with the ability to embrace change rather quickly. This morning I woke up and forced myself back to sleep thinking a crippling depression in my now old age may be fun. An hour later I woke up again and for about 5 minutes continued to wallow in the sorrow of being elderly before getting bored and up and at ’em, sneakers laced up, and back to working out after 2 weeks of slackery!

EMBRACING RUINED PLANS — Last week we had to cancel our yearly trip to Mexico for numerous reasons (drug cartels, ferry bombings, the US govt warning against travel to playa due to a ‘credible threat’), but the nail in the coffin was a blizzard canceling our flight 2 days in a row. So in typical Colleen style, the day we ended up canceling due to the flight issues, I took an extra long mopey-sulky nap, woke up, and embraced it by taking control of the situation, canceling the trip and planning a new one!

While appreciating this photo, consider the time taken to ensure full bubble coverage.

EMBRACING THE TRASH WE ARE — If going to Whole Foods and stocking up on wine, craft beer, cheese, crackers, & macarons and then spending a couple days mostly locked up in a steamy motel room eating, reading, and watching Law & Order and Modern Family reruns, while in a hot-tub full of bubbles and lush bombs appeals to you, have I got the place for you!! Our new trip was to a motel we have been to several times on Old Orchard Beach. It’s a clean, family-run place we love because it’s right on the beach, there is a jetted tub for two RIGHT IN THE ROOM by the bed, and in the winter they offer a buy-2-nights-and-get-one-free deal. It’s kinda trashy while trying to be classy and WE LOVE IT BECAUSE SO ARE WE!!! It’s called the Seacliff Motel and we highly recommend— unless you are Mr. or Mrs. Fancy-schmancy Pants.

On the drive down…….

Me: “OMG HONEY!! On the way there, I want to stop at TJs and get some margarita glasses and we can make margaritas and I can take a super cute Instagram pic and be all, ‘Heyyyyy….. Margs on the beach, y’all'”

See what I did there with the photo and title? Fun fact: There is only ONE natural lake in all of Tennessee and all the rest, including this one, are man-made! And either Mom or Chris told me that some of them were towns they just flooded over. So… like… are there houses down under the water? That’s hella creepy. Another fun fact: because I am me, thinking about houses under the water immediately led to thinking about mermaids and possible mermaid towns in the lakes of Tennessee.

Recon

This trip, like all of our trips, was part of our quest for future places to live when Sean graduates in 2020. This trip gave Nashville a very strong lead. We got to experience the “icky parts” of Nashville life, like heat/humidity and having your life revolve around traffic patterns and both felt that the benefits of having THINGS TO DO and PLACES TO EAT appear to outweigh the drawbacks. The cost-of-living seems about the same, possibly even a little less than here. It’s also nice to consider moving somewhere you already know people!

Confessions

I will probably get into country music if I move to Nashville. Dancing and singing and listening to music downtown was so fun that I forgot to hate country music for a few hours.

I think I want to become a Zumba or Dance Fitness instructor but struggle with that whole, “Girrrrrl…. you fat. How you gonna show me how to exercise?” thing. (I know that seems random, but I was thinking about it a lot in Nashville because there are no many more opportunities to do stuff down there, and also because there is SO MUCH MORE good food to eat and try that exercise will be even more important than ever…lol!)

Piper (my 1yo german shepherd) is the devil. We knew she was naughty untrained, but I think we were in ‘bad pet owner denial,’ until our friends dog-sat her for us and she was a holy terror. She is a high-energy, uncoordinated, moose-in-a-china-shop of a dog and even before our trip, we’ve had some hard discussions as a family about possibly finding her a more appropriate home. After the trip, we had to face the truth about our little angel giant monster. BUT, we are not giving up on her. We are buckling down and making a commitment to improving her behavior by improving OUR behavior! WE CAN DO THIS! (I hope).

That’s about all I’ve got for today. I think I want to be a better blogger and blog shorter and more often. I think. Maybe.

We are laying in the park. Lonnie is reading. I’m watching sailboats float around on the Charles, people jogging and biking past, birds hopping around is search of… whatever birds search for. I’m listening to birds singing, wind rustling through the trees, the hum of traffic and sirens in the distance, and a crowd of ladies and babies on a blanket nearby laughing and gossiping. I _LOVE_ this. And just when I think I can’t love the moment any more, Lonnie looks up from his kindle and says, “I can’t wait until we live in a city and this is our life every day.” I know he doesn’t mean Boston, for a multitude of reasons, but I was so happy to hear he was drinking in the moment as much as I was. And even though I know we are on the same page about moving away from Maine in a few years, it’s nice to be reminded that he wants it just as much as I do. (….another of those cobwebs left behind from my first marriage completely unrelated to anything Lonnie has ever said or done).

Even a rainy day in Boston makes Colleen a happy, happy girl! Spoiler alert: The sun came out about 5 minutes after I bought this umbrella.

I realize some of you out there are jet setters, but I don’t think I have ever traveled solo before and learned it’s actually quite lovely! Of course, I missed my usual travel companions, Lonnie and/or the kids. But hanging out with my own damn self is pretty great! I can eat when I want, watch makeup Youtube videos to my heart’s content, people watch. And when Delta offered up $800, meal vouchers, and a hotel stay, to people to who agree to give up their seats and fly out the following morning… I was all “GET DAT MONAAAAAY!!” A solo night in a hotel room was a major win because when I booked the trip, I hadn’t noticed it was finals week, and despite hustling all week long to try and get all my papers and projects done before I left, I did not. I had $45(!!) in meal vouchers, so I grabbed some overpriced lobster fried rice to take back to the hotel, spread myself out on the bed with my food, my tablet, and my laptop. Snapped on the TV and TBS had on Couples Retreat and THEN 50 Shades of Grey on LIKE THEY KNEW I WAS COMING!

When I couldn’t stand to look at my homework anymore and decided to go to sleep, I suddenly realized I had NO IDEA what time to set the alarm to give myself time to get ready and over to the airport for breakfast before my flight. Lonnie always sets his alarm, gets up and does his thing, and then wakes me up and I do mine. I started laughing (right out loud, alone, like a psycho) because I knew how foolish it was and what a lazy princess of a traveler I have become! Up until my divorce in 2012, I usually travelled only with the kids because my ex didn’t like to travel, was wracked with anxiety when he did travel, and only liked to use his vacation time for hunting. As a result, even when the ex begrudgingly came along, I always had to take care of everything and be “on,” the whole time. Well no more, baby!! Husband #2 LOVES to travel and also loves dealing with all the little details, so I have become a little duckling just following him around in a happy daze; clueless about gate numbers, time it will take to get from gate 25C to 13B, how much cash we have, where my passport is….

Somehow I figured out what time to get up, and I did end up cutting it a little close, but it wasn’t MY fault. If you haven’t been to Laguardia lately, it’s basically like being in the future. Rather than people waiting on you, you just touch pictures of what you want on any of 4672 ipads that are all over the place, and then pick up your food when you get a text that it’s ready. Well that’s all well and good until the network goes down and then you have mass confusion and not-waiter-guys running around with post-it notes taking orders. Pretty sure Lonnie would have had built in time for such shenanigans… 😉

My beloved Pentax k100d appears to have given up the ghost. I was excited to get out and take some seaside photos with a real camera , but alas, it was not meant to be. Thank goodness for my phone! Northport is such a quaint little town. The weather was absolutely perfect all week and visiting with mom was lovely! I even got to see my niece and nephew which was a nice surprise. We are already looking for next year’s coastal cottage!

Bellagio fountain about to explode! One of a zillion free things to do in Vegas!

This trip almost didn’t happen for us. We had some dooooozy car repair bills and actually looked into cancelling, but it was non-refundable– and we already had our flight tickets to Dallas for my school program, so we needed somewhere to stay anyway. We figured there was plenty of free stuff to see, even the hotels themselves are attractions. So if all we could afford to do was walk around, and sit in our hotel and stare at each other (lol), we’d still be on VACATION!

We booked a cheap on Expedia at Excalibur, which included a flight on Spirit Air. At the time, we didn’t know about Spirit Air and their trick, tricky ways. They even charge you for your carry on bags! So, sometimes Spirit LOOKS cheaper, but once you factor in bag costs, it’s possibly way more! In this case it was still way less as long as we kept it to one carry-on and a ‘personal item’ for each of us.

Loooooooong travel days are killer

Where we always fail: Getting there– we spent around $200 on our first loooong day traveling. With flight delays and shenanigans we were in airports, cars, and shuttles from 8am to 2am the following day! When you are stressed, stranded, and annoyed, it’s easy to just say, “fuck it!” and eat and drink whatever you want. It’s the waters…. the iced coffees, and the ”I’m starving and I just want to sit down somewhere and relax and eat real actual food” that get us on days like that. I have to be really careful about what I eat on travel days too because of my propensity for motion sickness and restless legs.

From now on we will be traveling with water bottles to refill! And healthy snacks. And a more realistic budget of dinner in an airport restaurant instead of delusions that we won’t eat at one 😉

For the Eating–Before we left, we had decided to avoid the buffets due to the high cost. BUT, after our first day in Vegas, we learned how quickly snacks, meals, and iced coffees add up and ended up saving money the next 2 days by getting the all-day buffet wristbands that were good at Excalibur and Luxor. Both are mediocre, typical buffets, but Luxor felt less like a cafeteria, so we mostly ate there. Pretty sure I ate my weight in watermelon this week.

For the drinking– we bought a bottle of Kraken to save on expensive drinks. But that ended up being a fail because our room was so far away from everything. It was also a fail because we learned that we actually LOVE video poker, and all you have to do is play $20 for all the drinks you want as long as you are playing. They say this is true of slots too, but we played in a few different casinos and the servers around the slots are not in the least bit attentive. SO, Good Samaritan’s that we are, we gave away our almost full bottle to some guy in the lobby when we left.

Bright eyed and bushy tailed BEFORE time-share hell

EPIC FAILURE–When we arrived at Excalibur, we were immediately pounced on by timeshare reps offering free tickets to shows and a free 2 night Vegas getaway. We figured, why Not? We had no plans and hadn’t planned on any shows because of brokeness. (We HAD planned on long days lounging by the pool with a bottle of rum, BUT, 110 degrees and being on the surface of the sun, and staying at a cheap hotel that didn’t put a lot of effort into shade making landscaping cancelled those plans. If you want shade at Excalibur you have to pay 50 bucks for the “premium” lounge chairs with umbrellas or under the few trees.) So, we signed up with the promise of a 2-3 hour presentation that included lunch and snacks. Holy crap what a mistake! We were there from 1030 to around 4 being emotionally blackmailed with dying mother stories, ‘you will be divorced if you don’t do this,’ we paid 800 to get you here so the least you can do is listen,’ and my favorite—a long drawn out game of good cop/bad cop between our “personal tour guide” and his manager. ….and that’s not even ¼ of the “techniques” used on us. I just don’t have the personality for that shit and left there angry and on the verge of tears. All for some tickets to Zumanity, and a trip that I am not even sure is real. ZUMANITY, btw… WAS AWESOME! ….but in hindsight I would have just ripped out the plastic and worried about money later 😉

Zumanity! Next time, we’ll just pay for a show 😉

ONE LAST TIP!! My BFF got me this gorgeous scarf in Thailand, so I wanted to bring it with me to dress things up a bit. I used it in Vegas to cover up from the scorching sun, and then to wrap myself in the freezing AC in the hotels. I used it in the airport to look nice and not like a slob (Don’t even get me started on people traveling in PJs and ripped up, dirty clothes…..). I used in on the plane as a light blanket. I alternated it with another scarf I brought to make it look like I had more outfits than I really did (we packed SUPER LIGHT– see Spirit Air discussion above…lol)! Total WIN! Scarves are my new travel essential!

I FREAKING LOVE VEGAS!! And I REALLY didn’t think I was going to enjoy it at all. CAN’T WAIT to go back!!!

Dear Lady Who Screamed, What the heck did you think was going to happen?? Are you new?

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Me

I am a 40 something (yikers!) year old divorced, and then re-married, mom of two, Sean and Jessi. A lot of my blog is focused on my struggle with my weight. Another lot of my blog is focused on my journey to better myself in other aspects of my life. I spent the first half of my life angry and bitter, with big splashes of fun to hold it together. In this half, I've kept the fun and put in the work on myself to kiss the angry, bitter bitch goodbye!
I have been blogging since 2006ish on my on Porchrockers blogger blog. I love blogging and I loved that blog, but my life has changed so much that it just didn't fit me anymore so I created a shiny new blog to match my shiny new life!